Method, system and device for inputting text by consecutive slide

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a method for inputting text by consecutive slide, comprising: detecting whether a consecutive slide input mode is triggered in response to an input of a user; detecting and recording a sliding trajectory of a user on a touch-screen and inputting a corresponding word; and predicting a possible word based on a context and another input of the user and updating the layout of a keyboard according to at least one of the results of the prediction. The invention also relates to a system that implements the method, as well as a corresponding device. The method, system and device increase input efficiency and achieve smart prediction and smart arrangement of candidate words in an area of the keyboard.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to information input to electronic devicesand, in particular, to consecutively sliding input to touch-screenelectronic devices. More specifically, the invention relates to methods,system and device for inputting text by consecutive slide.

BACKGROUND

Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional touch-screen electronic deviceusually has a text area 110 that displays input text or a popup messageand a keyboard area 120 allowing a use's text input. In addition, anarea 130 which presents candidate words will also generally appeararound keyboard area 120 during the user's input. In order to achieve anoptimal balance between screen usage efficiency and the user's visualexperience, area 130 is typically disposed on top of keyboard area 120and is so configured that the candidate words are laterally arranged oneby one. The conventional touch-screen input techniques allow forselection of only one word by a single input (defined hereinafter as atouch that a finger or an input instrument, such as a stylus, makessince it comes into contact with the screen until it leaves the screen).For example, in such techniques, a tapping or other motion is allowed tocause the input of a single word, and even with a conventionaltouch-screen keyboard which allows text input by sliding trajectories, asliding trajectory completed in one motion can only be parsed as oneword. This leads to a great reduction in information input efficiency,increased operating complexity, and significant user inconveniences.Therefore, there is a great need in the field of information input totouch-screen electronic devices for enabling the input of a sequence ofwords or a complete sentence through a single input.

SUMMARY

The present invention addresses the above-described disadvantages of theprior art by presenting methods, system and device for inputting text byconsecutive slide, which offer the benefits of a significant increase ininput efficiency, allowing input of multiple successively consecutivewords or even a whole sentence of text by a single continuous slidingtrajectory, capability of smart word prediction and arrangement, andflexible adaptation to various keyboard layouts, even including thosedefined by the user.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, there isprovided a method for inputting text by consecutive slide, comprising:predicting a possible word based on a context and an input of a user;displaying at least one of the results of the prediction in a key areaof a keyboard; and detecting and recording a sliding trajectory of theuser on a touch-screen, inputting a corresponding word and updating thelayout of the keyboard.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, theprediction of the possible word includes one or a combination of:predicting a current possible word being input; predicting the currentpossible word when part, but not all, of its letters has been input bythe user; predicting a related word of the current possible word;correcting an input of the user and predicting the current possible wordbased on the results of the correction; predicting one or more nextwords to be input by the user; and prediction based on one or more ofword use frequencies, the user's input preference, linguistic models,syntax rules, context and other relevant statistical information.

More specifically, predicting the one or more next words includes one ora combination of: when letters input by the user have come to constitutea complete word, predicting the one or more next words based on adefault one of the results of the prediction of the current word; andwhen a user has input and selected a word, predicting the one or morenext words based on the selected word.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention,displaying the at least one of the results of the prediction in the keyarea of the keyboard includes: word processing according tosystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules, including, forexample, one or more of: letter correspondence-based display; inter-worddistance and word length-based display; touch point position andtrajectory-based display; and word use frequency, user input preference,linguistic models, syntax rules, context and other relevant statisticalinformation-based display. Specifically, the letter correspondence-baseddisplay may include: first letter correspondence-based display, whereinthe first letter comprises a first letter or a first phonetic alphabet;or correspondence to a next letter to be input, for example, a nextletter or a next phonetic alphabet. The inter-word distance and wordlength-based display may include: determining whether target displayregions of at least two words are excessively close to each other and,if true, only displaying one of the at least two words with a highestpriority level or adjusting the target display region of each other oneof the at least two words with a lower priority level. The inter-worddistance and word length-based display may include: determining whethera length of a word affects another word to be displayed at an adjacenttarget display region and, if true, only displaying one of the two wordswith a high priority level or adjusting the target display region of theother of the two words with a low priority level. The touch pointposition and trajectory-based display may include: determining whether atarget display region of a word is to be blocked by a current touchpoint and, if true, not displaying the word or adjusting its targetdisplay region. The touch point position and trajectory-based displaymay include: determining whether target display regions of at least twowords are to be overlapped or blocked by a trajectory of a current touchpoint and, if true, for each of the at least two words, furtherdetermining, according to their priority levels, whether to display itor adjust its target display region, such that it will not be overlappedor blocked by a possible subsequent extension of the trajectory.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention,displaying the at least one of the results of the prediction in the keyarea of the keyboard may further include: displaying at least one ofwords that have been processed in the key area of the keyboard or inpredetermined region(s) of associated key(s). The predetermined regionmay be located above, at the top left of, at the top right of, under, atthe bottom left of, or at the bottom right of the associated key, or atany position that is spaced apart from the associated key by a distancenot exceeding a system-predefined distance threshold. In particular,displaying the at least one of the words that have been processed in thekey area of the keyboard may further include one or a combination of:displaying the at least one of the words also in a candidate-word area;displaying at least one of the results of the prediction of the currentpossible word in the candidate-word area or a user-defined input areaand displaying each of at least one of the results of the prediction ofthe one or more next possible words in a predetermined region of anassociated key; and updating displayed content in the key area of thekeyboard in a real-time manner according to an input of the user.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, themethod may further comprise providing the user with an indication in theform of a multimedia action, for example, one or a combination of avisual indication, an auditory indication and a vibration. Theindication may be provided, for example, for indicating empty predictionresults, or for indicating a word of which a related word is to beinput, or for notify the input of a word, or for prompting the user totrigger the consecutive slide input mode, or for notify that theconsecutive slide input mode has been triggered, or for indicatingdisplayed predicted next possible words.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, themethod may further comprise detecting whether the consecutive slideinput mode is triggered in response to an input of a user.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention,detecting and recording the user's sliding trajectory on thetouch-screen and inputting the corresponding word may include:determining whether the sliding trajectory meets a system-predefinedword selection criterion. The word selection criterion may include: atouch point being located in a system-predefined, effective regionassociated with the word, for example, a region where the word isdisplayed or a region spaced apart from the word by a distance notexceeding a system-predefined distance threshold. The word selectioncriterion may further include: selecting a word by a sliding trajectory,for example, selection by a sliding trajectory crossing the word fromone side to another side, or selection of a related word of the word bythe sliding trajectory. In particular, the selection of the related wordmay include: making a sliding trajectory from a region where the word isdisplayed to a predetermined region, for example, a region of a spacekey, the candidate-word area, or another designated region; displayingrelated words of the concerned word in vicinity of the predeterminedregion; and selecting a corresponding one of the related words based ona predetermined operation of the user and replacing the word with theselected one of the related words. The word selection criterion mayfurther include simultaneous multiple touch points.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention,detecting and recording the user's sliding trajectory on thetouch-screen and inputting the corresponding word may include: inputtingthe word meeting the word selection criterion to a text area, forexample, directly inputting the selected word around the location of acursor in the text area, or in the user-defined input area.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, updatingthe keyboard layout may include one or a combination of: displayingpredicted words in the key area of the keyboard according to a currenttouch point of the user; in the event of a change occurring in thecurrent touch point, recalculating and rearranging target displayregions of the predicted words; determining whether the number ofobtained words to be displayed exceeds a maximum displayable wordnumber; determining whether the words are located on a trajectory of apossible sliding trajectory of the user and, if there is overlapping orblockage, only displaying one of the words with a highest prioritylevel; determining whether a word to be displayed conflicts with wordsthat have been displayed and displaying the predicted words according tothe results of the determination; calculating associated effectiveregions of the words; determining whether the current touch point islocated within the effective region of a word to be displayed; andprocessing a word unsuitable to be immediately displayed, for example,cancelling its display or rearranging it. The rearrangement may include:incrementally moving an initial target display region of the word toother regions of an associated key of the word; and if the word becomessuitable to be displayed within a predetermined number of increments,displaying it in the key area, otherwise, cancelling its display.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, theconsecutive slide input mode may be triggered by one or more of: asliding trajectory starting from the space key; a sliding trajectorystarting from an arbitrarily designated key; a sliding trajectorystarting from a sensitive point located away from the key area; auser-defined motion made around a displayed word; a predetermined motionmade in an arbitrarily designated region; a predetermined action takenon a corresponding electronic device, for example, shaking it; and asliding command input through other means, for example, voice inputmeans, optical sensing input means, infrared sensing input means andpressure sensing input means. The user-defined motion may include one ora combination of: drawing a circle around the word, upward sliding,downward sliding, sliding to the left, sliding to the right, slidingalong a predetermined direction from one side of the word to anotherside thereof, long pressing, drawing a predetermined pattern, anddragging the word to a predetermined region, for example, dragging theword the region of the space key. The predetermined motion may includeone or a combination of: tapping, long pressing, drawing a predeterminedpattern, and sliding along a predetermined direction, in a designatedregion. The designated region may include a region of the displayed wordor a region spaced apart from the displayed word by a designateddistance. The designated region may be a round, square, or oval region.The predetermined action may include shaking the electronic device.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, themethod may further include: input word cancellation, for example,cancellation of only an immediately previously input word, or auser-defined number of previously input words, or all previously inputword, by a predetermined action, for example, making a slidingtrajectory from an area of the keyboard to the space key, or to auser-defined area, or beyond the keyboard.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, theconsecutive slide input mode may be exited when the occurrence of asystem-predefined exit triggering event is detected. The exit triggeringevent may include one or a combination of: the user terminating thetouch, the user making a sliding trajectory to a predetermined area,absence of a possible next word, and the user selecting a predeterminedword.

According to an aspect of embodiments of the present invention, themethod may further include performing an anti-blockage treatment, forexample, keyboard duplication, word relocation and word rearrangement,on word information displayed in the keyboard area during the continuoussliding trajectory based input.

According to another aspect of embodiments of the present invention,there is provided another method for inputting text by consecutiveslide, comprising: detecting whether a consecutive slide input mode istriggered in response to an input of a user; detecting and recording atrajectory of the sliding trajectory of the user on a touch-screen andinputting a corresponding word; and predicting a possible word, forexample, a current possible word being input, based on a context andanother input of the user and updating a keyboard layout according to atleast one of the results of the prediction.

According to still another aspect of embodiments of the presentinvention, there is provided a system for inputting text by consecutiveslide, comprising at least: a dictionary database, adapted to store wordinformation; a user interaction module adapted to process an interactionwith a user; a display module, adapted to provide the user withdisplayed content; and an analysis and processing module, incommunication with the dictionary database, user interaction module anddisplay module, wherein, the user interaction module records informationinput in an area of a keyboard and transmits it to the analysis andprocessing module; the analysis and processing module receives theinformation and an event transmitted from the user interaction module,sorts and processes the information and event, obtains a list of wordsfrom the dictionary database based on selection rules, and passes theobtained list on to the display module, and the display module displaysand arranges the words obtained from the analysis and processing moduleaccording to system-defined word display and arrangement rules in a keyarea of the keyboard and feeds information about the results of thedisplay back to the analysis and processing module.

According to a further aspect of embodiments of the present invention,there is provided an electronic device, comprising at least a userinteraction means and a processor, characterized in that the userinteraction means acquires information about an operation of the userand feeds output information back to the user, and in that the processoris adapted to implement a method as defined above based on the acquiredinformation about the operation of the user.

As described above, the methods, system and device according to thepresent invention can predict a series of candidate words or wordcombinations based on the context and the user's input preference andarrange them around corresponding keys of the keyboard according topredefined display rules. In addition, the user is allowed to make asliding trajectory, i.e., a single operation, consecutively over thedesired ones of the words or word combinations displayed in the keyboardto input multiple words, which can form a complete sentence or even ablock of text. Moreover, the arrangement of the words or wordcombinations is flexibly adaptive to various keyboard layouts, forexample, a QWERTY-based or other full-alphabet layout, a half-QWERTYlayout, an alphanumeric keypad layout, and even a layout defined by theuser. All of these achieve an effective increase in input efficiency andentail “smart” word prediction and arrangement.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a conventionaltouch-screen electronic device.

FIG. 2 depicts a schematic illustration of an electronic device suitablefor a method for continuous sliding trajectory based text inputaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart graphically illustrating an embodiment of themethod of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of step S1 of themethod of the present invention of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of step 120 of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 6 and 7 schematically illustrate an embodiment of touch pointposition and trajectory based display.

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of words arranged in a half-QWERTYkeyboard in accordance with a specific embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of words arranged in an alphanumerickeypad in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart graphically illustrating an embodiment of step S2of the method of the present invention of FIG. 3.

FIGS. 11 and 12 schematically illustrate different embodiments ofupdating the keyboard layout in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 13 schematically illustrates an embodiment of an effective regionassociated with a word and/or word combination in the method of thepresent invention.

FIG. 14 schematically illustrates an embodiment of anti-blockage bykeyboard duplication in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 15 schematically illustrates an embodiment of anti-blockage by wordrelocation in the method of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a schematic illustrating a system for continuous slidingtrajectory based text input constructed in accordance with the presentinvention.

FIGS. 17 A, 17B, 17C and 17D are schematics illustrating usermanipulation in a first example of the present invention.

FIGS. 18A and 18B are schematics illustrating user manipulation in asecond example of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a schematic illustrating user manipulation in a fourthexample of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a schematic illustrating user manipulation in a fifth exampleof the present invention.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D, 21E and 21F are schematics illustrating usermanipulation in a sixth example of the present invention.

FIGS. 22A, 22B, 22C, 22D, 22E and 22F are schematics illustrating usermanipulation in a seventh example of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The features of the present invention will become more apparent from thedetailed description of specific embodiments set forth below.

FIG. 2 depicts a schematic illustration of an electronic device suitablefor a method for continuous sliding trajectory based text inputaccording to the present invention. The electronic device includes atleast a user interaction means 100, a processor 200 and a memory 300.

A user may transmit input information to means 100 by at least one of: atapping, sliding or other motion made by a stylus, finger or other meansfor making such motions; or voice from a microphone or other voicetransmitter. Upon reception of the user's input information, means 100relays the information to processor 200 for processing and feeds outputinformation from processor 200 back to the user. Mean 100 may employ asingle component for both information input and output, for example, atouch-sensitive screen or other sensitive screen for use in electronicdevices, equipped with a keyboard. The keyboard may have a QWERTY-basedor other full-alphabet layout, a half-QWERTY layout, an alphanumerickeypad layout, or even a layout defined by the user. Alternatively, mean100 may also use discrete components for respectively performing theinput and output functions.

Processor 200 may include, but not limited to, a microprocessor, aprogrammable logic device, an integrated circuit chip or other similardevice. Processor 200 is configured to process the user's inputinformation transmitted from means 100 and to generate and feed anoutput signal to means 100. In addition, processor 200 may also interactwith memory 300, including obtaining data from memory 300 and writing orupdating data therein.

Memory 300 may store: basic programs for routine operations of theelectronic device such as an operating system and software; computerinstructions for executing the embodiments of the method of the presentinvention described below; word-related information for use in theembodiments of the method of the present invention. The word-relatedinformation may include words, information about associations betweenthe words and their related words, use frequencies of the words andother data. As used herein and hereafter, a word of a language to whichthe text being input belongs is intended to refer to a sequenceconsisting of one or more smallest recognized elements of the languageand associated with a certain meaning or pronunciation, for example, aword of one or more letters of English, French, German or otheralphabetic languages or a single character or phrase of Chinese, Korean,Japanese or other non-alphabetic languages.

The electronic device may be implemented as any electronic deviceallowing text input based on a sensitive screen, including but notlimited to, touch-screen mobile phones, touch-screen computers andtouch-screen e-books.

Referring to FIG. 3, an embodiment of the method of the presentinvention used in the aforesaid electronic device may at least includethe steps of:

(S1) predicting a possible word based on a context and/or informationobtained from an interaction with the user and displaying at least oneword of the results of the prediction in a key area of a keyboard;

(S2) detecting an input of the user, activating a consecutive slideinput mode when the input meets a system-predefined triggeringcriterion, and proceeding to step S3; and

(S3) detecting and recording a sliding trajectory of the user on a touchscreen, inputting a corresponding word and updating the layout of thekeyboard.

It is noted that the collection of these steps is provided merely as apreferred embodiment of the present invention, and that any separationor combination of them is considered with no impact on the conception ofthe invention. In other embodiments, the method may further include oneor more steps prior to or after those described above to provideadditional technical features.

For example, the method may also include: (S4) in the event of theuser's input not meeting the criterion, displaying and inputting wordinformation only according to system-predefined word display andarrangement rules.

Alternatively, another embodiment of the method of the invention used inthe electronic device may include the steps of: (S11) detecting an inputof the user, activating the consecutive slide input mode when the user'sinput meets the triggering criterion, and proceeding to step S12; (S12)detecting and recording a sliding trajectory of the user on the touchscreen and obtaining a corresponding word; and (S13) predicting apossible word based both on the context and an input of the user andupdating the keyboard layout according to at least one of the predictionresults.

Still alternatively, in another embodiment of the invention, the methodmay include: (S111) predicting possible next words based on a contextand/or information obtained from an interaction with the user anddisplaying at least one of the words in the keyboard area; (S112)detecting an input of the user and activating the consecutive slideinput mode when the input meets the triggering criterion; (S113)detecting and recording a sliding trajectory of the user on the touchscreen and, when the trajectory enters or approaches a system-predefinedeffective region associated with a displayed word, inputting the word ina text area; (S114) predicting possible next words based on a newcontext and/or a word just having been input and displaying at least oneof the words in the keyboard area; and (S115) repeating steps S113 andS114 and exiting the consecutive slide input mode until asystem-predefined exit criterion is met.

The inventive method will be described in greater detail below withreference to exemplary embodiments and the drawing pertaining thereto.

The method is initiated with at least one letter input by the user inany possible manner through means 100. The input information then servesas the basis for predicting a possible word, and at least one of theresults of the prediction is subsequently displayed in the key area ofthe keyboard.

The possible word prediction may at least include: predicting a currentpossible word being input by the user; and predicting a next possibleword to be input by the user.

In one specific embodiment, the current word prediction includespredicting the word when part, but not all, of its letters, has beeninput. For example, upon the user having input “wh”, “what”, “who”,“where”, etc. may be predicted as candidates of the possible wordcurrently being input.

In another specific embodiment, the current word prediction may furtherinclude: predicting a related word of the current word, wherein therelated word may be a word syntactically or semantically related to thecurrent word. Specifically, for instance, in response to “request”having being input by the user, words with syntactic or semanticrelevance to the word “require”, such as its forms in different tenses,synonyms, antonyms and its forms in different parts of speech, forexample, “required”, “requires”, “demand”, “answer” and “requirement”,may be predicted as candidates of the current word. In another instance,after the user has input “smart”, words syntactically or semanticallyrelated to the word “smart”, such as its comparative degree form,superlative form, synonyms, antonyms and its forms in different parts ofspeech will be predicted as candidates, for example, “smarter”,“smartest”, “wise”, “dull” and “smartly”. In still another instance,responding to “mouse” having been input by the user, words syntacticallyor semantically related to the word “mouse”, such as its plural form,synonyms and its possessive form will be predicted, for example, “mice”,“rat” and “mouse's”.

In still another specific embodiment, the current word prediction mayfurther include: correcting a current input of the user and predictingthe current word based on the results of the correction. Specifically,when there is an accidental mistake in the user's current input or aspelling mistake in a word constituted by letters that have been inputby the user, for example, “car” mistakenly input as “csr” due topressing of a wrong key or “conference” misspelled as “confarence”, acorrection of the user's current input will be conducted first and theprediction of the current possible word will be performed based on theresults of the correction.

In one specific embodiment, the next word prediction may include: whenletters input by the user have come to constitute a complete word,predicting the next word based on a default one of the results of theprediction of the current word. For example, when the user has input“what”, the word “what” may be taken as a default result of thepredicted candidates “what”, “whatever”, “whatsit”, “whatsoever” and“wheat”, and “can”, “do”, “is” and “to” may be predicted as thecandidates of the next word.

In another specific embodiment, the next word prediction may furtherinclude: when the user has input and selected a word, predicting thenext word based on the selected word. For example, upon the user havinginput and selected the word “how”, “are”, “do” and “can” will bepredicted as the candidates of the next word.

In other embodiments, the possible word prediction may includepredicting only the current word, or only the next word, or both currentand next words.

Additionally, the possible word prediction may further include:predicting the current word, or one next word, or several next words.

The possible word prediction must take into account the context, and theprediction results may change with the context. For instances, in caseof a previously input word “yesterday”, when the user has input “it”,the next word prediction results may be “was”, “did” and the like, andin case of a previously input word “now”, in response to “it” input bythe user, the results may alternatively be “is”, “does” and the like;and in case of a previously input word “I”, when the user has input “s”,the current word prediction results may be “see”, “sing”, “sleep” andthe like, and in case of previously input words “I played”, in responseto “s” input by the user, the results may alternatively be “some”,“skating” and the like. Further, the possible word prediction may alsotake into account one or more of word use frequency, the user's inputpreference, linguistic models, syntax rules and other relevantstatistical information.

With the prediction results having been obtained, at least one word ofthe results is displayed in the key area of the keyboard. The predictionresults may be a single word or a combination of several words. Inspecific implementations, the prediction results may also be empty,i.e., not including any word. In this case, nothing about the predictionresults will be displayed in the key area. In specific embodiments, theevent of the prediction results being empty may also be associated withan indication in the form of visual or auditory indication or vibration.

In one embodiment, the display of the at least one word of theprediction results is accomplished in a manner that is distinct from theconventional methods. In the conventional methods, candidate words aredisplayed in an area located away from the key area of the keyboard.This requires the user to move both the operating instrument for inputor selection and the line of sight to move forth and back between thekey area and the candidate-word area throughout the whole input process.For example, the user's line of sight needs to stay on the key area soas to facilitate the operating instrument to touch one or more keys inthe area. However, when to select a candidate word, the user has to moveboth the line of sight and operating instrument to the candidate-wordarea to fulfill the selection task. This approach leads to greatreduction in the input efficiency. In addition, as it requires the userto switch between operations in the key and candidate-word areas, italso results in an increase in the operating complexity and tends to getthe user tired.

In light of this, the inventors of the present invention have developedword display and arrangement rules to process the prediction resultssuch that at least one word of the processed results is directlydisplayed in the key area. This eliminates the need for moving the lineof sight and operating instrument forth and back between the key andcandidate-word areas and allows the user to do input and word selectiondirectly in the same key area, thereby achieving more rapid and smoothtext input, significantly increasing the input efficiency, relieving theuser's fatigue caused by moving the line of sight and operatinginstrument forth and back, and providing the user with a morecomfortable inputting experience.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 4, one embodiment of displaying the atleast one word of the processed results in the key area of the keyboardmay include:

(120) obtaining words and/or word combinations based on the predictionresults and processing the obtained words and/or word combinationsaccording to the system-predefined rules; and

(140) displaying the processed words and/or word combinations in the keyarea of the keyboard.

In specific embodiments, referring to FIG. 5, obtaining the words and/orword combinations from the prediction results and processing theobtained words and/or word combinations according to thesystem-predefined rules may further include the steps of:

(1201) obtaining a list of words and/or word combinations;

(1202) for each of the words and/or word combinations, parsing itstarget display region according to their coordinate information;

(1203) analyzing the words and/or word combinations according to thesystem-predefined rules to obtain words and/or word combinations to bedisplayed and their target display regions, wherein if a word and/orword combination satisfies the system-predefined rules, it is displayedin step (140) in a predetermined region of a key in the key areaassociated therewith; otherwise, a rearrangement mode is activated torecreate a list of displayable words and/or word combinations, followedby the display of the rearranged words and/or word combinations inpredetermined regions of respective keys associated therewith in step(140).

More specifically, the word display and arrangement rules may at leastinclude one or a combination of: (i) letter correspondence-baseddisplay; (ii) inter-word distance or word length-based display; (iii)touch point position or trajectory-based display; and (iv) word usefrequency, user input preference, linguistic models, syntax rules,context and other relevant statistical information-based display.

In one specific embodiment of the present invention, the lettercorrespondence may include first letter correspondence. Morespecifically, the first letter correspondence-based display may include,but not limited to, if a word or word combination belongs to analphabetic language, displaying it in a predetermined region of a keycorresponding to its first letter, or else, if the word or wordcombination belongs to a non-alphabetic language, displaying it in apredetermined region of a key corresponding to its first phoneticalphabet. For example, the word “morning” is displayed at the locationof the key “m”, and “

” at the location of the key “T”.

In one specific embodiment of the present invention, the lettercorrespondence may further include correspondence to a next letter to beinput by the user. The next letter correspondence-based display mayinclude, but not limited to, if a word or word combination belongs to analphabetic language, displaying its candidates in predetermined regionsof keys corresponding to candidates of the next letter predicted basedon letters that have been input and on the word or word combinationitself, or else, if the word or word combination belongs to anon-alphabetic language, predicting candidates of a next phoneticalphabet to be input based on an analysis performed on phoneticalphabets that have been input as well as the word or word combinationitself according to the language of the text being input and displayingcandidates of the word or word combination in predetermined regions ofkeys corresponding to the candidates of the next phonetic alphabet. Forexample, if the text being input in French, upon “jab” have been input,the predicted candidate word “jabiru” will be displayed in apredetermined region of the possible next key “i”, “jable” in apredetermined region of the possible next key “l”, and “jabot” in apredetermined region of “o”.

When the user is performing an operation in the keyboard area of thetouch screen with a finger or an input instrument like a stylus, beforethe finger or input instrument is lifted off, there will be inevitably ablind area in the user's angular field of view around the location wherethe finger or an input instrument contacts the screen. Therefore,irregularly scattering the obtained words and/or word combinations inthe key area of the keyboard will cause visual confusion and make theuser have no idea of what to do next, and in worse cases, unable toperform subsequent operations. On the other hand, the irregularscattering may unintentionally activate an undesired word, which maycause an operation fault, when the user is making a sliding trajectoryfrom one word to another.

In order to provide better operating experience and a more convenientinput approach, the display and arrangement of the words and/or wordcombinations in the key area according to the present invention takesinto account multiple factors, including the number, positionalrelationships and lengths of the displayed words and/or wordcombinations, a position of a touch point and a sliding trajectory,thereby achieving reasonable presentation of words that are possiblydesired by the user and allowing the user to consecutively inputmultiple words, a whole sentence, or even a paragraph of text based on acontinuous sliding trajectory.

In one specific embodiment of the present invention, the inter-worddistance or word length-based display may include, but not limited to:if the parsed display regions of at least two of the words and/or wordcombinations are excessively close to each other, for each of the wordsand/or word combinations, determining, according to its priority level,whether to display it or not, such that, for example, only a word and/orword combination with a highest priority level is displayed, and thedisplay region of each word and/or word combination with a lowerpriority level is changed; and if a length of a word and/or wordcombination affects the display of another word and/or word combinationwith an adjacent display region, determining according to their prioritylevels whether the word and/or word combination is displayed or whetherits display region is to be changed.

In one specific embodiment of the present invention, the touch pointposition or trajectory-based display may include, but not limited to: ifthe parsed target display region of a word and/or word combination isdetermined to be blocked by a current touch point, not displaying theword and/or word combination or adjusting its display region; if theparsed target display regions of at least two words and/or wordcombinations are to be overlapped or blocked by a trajectory associatedwith the current touch point, for each of the words and/or wordcombinations, determining, according to its priority level, whether todisplay it or not, or whether to adjust its display region to make theregion not to be overlapped or blocked by a possible subsequentextension of the trajectory.

More specifically, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a displayregion A of a word A and a display region B of a word B are both locatedin a coordinate system centered at the position of a touch point O andhave their sides parallel to the x and y axes. While these regions areillustrated and described as rectangles herein as an example and forsimplicity, they can assume any shape suitable to be implemented, suchas rectangular, square, round, oval, etc. In addition, according topractical needs, the display regions may have different shapes or sizes.Further, the size of a display region may be determined by a parameterof the word, for example its length.

The process may begin with the ascertainment of whether there is overlapbetween regions A and B. If true, it is known that words A and B will beunrecognizable to the user due to their partial or entire overlapping.Otherwise, the process proceeds to determine, after words A and B aredisplayed in the display regions, whether the user's selection of word Awill conflict with the selection of word B.

Afterward, a calculation may be performed to obtain positions of regionsA and B relative to the touch point. When regions A and B are located indifferent quadrants of the coordinate system centered at point O, theyare considered not to cause such a conflict. In other words, in thiscase, after words A and B have appeared in their display regions in thekey area, the selection of them will requires the user's motions frompoint O toward different directions, which will not cause any conflict.Otherwise, further effort is needed to find whether a conflict willoccur due to the relative positional relationship between regions A andB. More specifically, it may be first ascertained that whether a centerpoint oa of region A and a center point ob of region B are situatedupper and lower than the x axis, and also on the right and left of the yaxis, respectively, followed by calculation of a difference between ahorizontal or vertical distance from points oa to O and half of a widthor length of region A, as well as a difference between a horizontal orvertical distance from points ob to O and half of a width or length ofregion B. For example, if points oa and ob are on opposite sides of eachof the axes x and y, concurrently with the horizontal and verticaldistances between points oa and O being greater than halves of the widthand length of region A, respectively, and also with the horizontal andvertical distances between points ob and O being greater than halves ofthe width and length of region A, respectively, regions A and B will beconsidered to reside on diagonally opposing quadrants of the coordinatesystem and not to cause a conflict. In addition, if points oa and ob arepositioned on the same side of the axis x and opposite sides of the axisy, with the horizontal distance between points oa and O being greaterthan half of the width of region A and with the horizontal distancebetween points ob and O and half of the width of region B, regions A andB will be considered to be located in adjacent two quadrants on the sameside of the axis y and also not to cause a conflict. Further, conditionsfor regions A and B to be located in adjacent two quadrants on the sameside of the axis x may be determined in the same way.

If part or whole of region A is located in the same quadrant as part orwhole of region B, further determination is needed.

For example, in this case, an interval between the regions can becompared with a predetermined non-conflicting distance threshold todetermine whether a conflict will occur. Referring to FIG. 6, a length Lindicated at 500 is compared to the predetermined non-conflictingdistance threshold LT. If L>LT or L>=LT, then regions A and B areconsidered not mutually conflicting, and versa visa. The aforementionedinterval may be the length L indicated at 500 in FIG. 6, or a linear,horizontal or vertical distance between the center points of regions Aand B, or a linear, horizontal or vertical distance from any other pointassociated with region A or B to any other point associated with regionB or A. The non-conflicting distance threshold may be a preset constantvalue, a user-defined constant value, or a variable which is a functionof a variety of parameters such as a size or resolution of thetouch-screen of the electronic device, use frequencies of candidatewords and the context. In other embodiments, the user's input behaviorsmay be analyzed to determine the non-conflicting distance threshold as adynamic value consistent with the user's input preference.

As a further example, an angle may be compared with a predeterminednon-conflicting angle threshold to determine whether the regions aremutually conflicting. Referring to FIG. 7, a difference between anglesβa and βb is compared to the predetermined non-conflicting anglethreshold βT. For example, if the difference between angles βa and βb isgreater than or equal to βT, then regions A and B will be considered notmutually conflicting, and versa visa. The angle compared to thethreshold may be an angle delimited by a line segment between the touchpoint and any point associated with region A and a line segment betweenthe touch point and any point associated with region B. Thenon-conflicting angle threshold may be set according to systemparameters, or defined by the user, or a dynamic variable which is afunction of various parameters such as a size or resolution of thetouch-screen of the electronic device, use frequencies of candidatewords, the context and the user's input preference.

Further, the determination of whether a conflict exists between regionsA and B may also be accomplished by a combination of the foregoinginterval-based and angle-based approaches, or by an alternativeapproach.

In one specific embodiment of the invention, display priority levels ofthe words/word combinations may be determined based on their usefrequencies, the user's input preference, linguistic models, syntaxrules, context and other relevant statistical information. This mayinclude, but not limited to: more prioritized display of a word/or wordcombination: with a higher use frequency; more consistent with theuser's input preference (e.g., previously input word groups, phrases andsentences may be memorized and selectively statistically analyzed, andthose with a highest use frequency may be selected as ones preferred bythe user and then compared with the the word/or word combination todetermine the consistence); more consistent with the syntax rules; moreconsistent with the context or the other relevant statisticalinformation.

In practical applications, the word display and arrangement rules may beselectively used or used in various combinations according to needs ofthe applications. For example, the rules may be one or more of: firstletter correspondence based display above a letter key of the keyboard;inter-word distance or word length-based display; and touch pointposition or trajectory-based display.

Further, when the number of the rules is greater than two, they may alsobe prioritized to achieve a word display and arrangement approach morefavorable to the user.

With the words and/or word combinations to be displayed and theirdisplay regions having been obtained, step (140) is performed. Inspecific embodiments, displaying the words and/or word combinations inthe key area of the keyboard may be implemented as any of:

(1401) displaying them in their display regions in the key area of thekeyboard; and

(1402) displaying them in their display regions in the key area of thekeyboard and also in a candidate-word area.

Specifically, displaying the words and/or word combinations in theirdisplay regions in the key area of the keyboard may be implemented asdisplaying them in predetermined regions of their respective associatedkeys. For example, each predetermined region may be located above, atthe top left of, at the top right of, under, at the bottom left of or atthe bottom right of the respective associated key, or at any positionthat is spaced apart therefrom by a distance not exceeding asystem-predefined threshold.

In other embodiments, the results of the current word prediction may bedisplayed in the candidate-word area or a user-defined input area, withthose of the next word prediction being displayed in the key area of thekeyboard, in order to provide the user with an additional option. Once adefault result of the current word prediction results is just the onedesired by the user, the user may directly select any word and/or wordcombination of the next word prediction results, and the system mayautomatically combine the default result with the selected word and/orword combination and output them together, thus achieving a more rapidand convenient output approach.

Furthermore, displaying the at least one word of the processed resultsin the key area of the keyboard may further include: updating displayedcontent in the key area in a real-time fashion in response to an inputof the user so as to closely associate the displayed content with theuser's current input, thereby allowing the user to perform a subsequentoperation based on the fed-back, displayed content and providing theuser with more input conveniences. For example, when the user's currentinput has not yet constituted a complete word, in response to at leastone letter subsequently input by the user, the possible word predictionmay be done to update the displayed content in the key area bydisplaying at least one word of the prediction results therein.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that, the conceptionof the present invention is not limited to any specific keyboard layout.The aforementioned keyboard layout may be a QWERTY-based or otherfull-alphabet layout, a half-QWERTY layout, an alphanumeric keypadlayout, or even a layout defined by the user. FIGS. 8 and 9schematically show the display of predicted possible next words in keyareas of a half-QWERTY keyboard and an alphanumeric keypad layout inaccordance with respective embodiments of the present invention.

After that, step S2 is performed to detect an input of the user andactivate the consecutive slide input mode if the input meets asystem-predefined triggering criterion. Referring to FIG. 10, in aspecific embodiment of the present invention, step S2 may furtherinclude the steps of:

(210) receiving an input of the user and performing an analysis todetermine whether a motion or event embodied in the user′ input meetsthe system-predefined triggering criterion;

(220) if true, activating the consecutive slide input mode andproceeding to step S3; and

(230) otherwise, performing step S4 to input and display wordinformation according to the system-predefined word display andarrangement rules.

In one embodiment, the triggering criterion may include one or more of,and may further include one or more of substantial equivalents andvarious possible alternatives of:

(2101) a sliding trajectory starting from a space key;

(2102) a sliding trajectory starting from an arbitrarily designated key;

(2103) a sliding trajectory starting from a sensitive point located awayfrom the key area;

(2104) a user-defined motion made around a displayed word, wherein themotion may be, for example, at least one or a combination of drawing acircle around the word, upward sliding, downward sliding, sliding to theleft, sliding to the right, sliding along a predetermined direction fromone side of the word to another side thereof, long pressing, drawing apredetermined pattern and dragging the word to a predetermined region,and wherein dragging the word to the predetermined region may includedragging the word to a region of the space key or of another designatedkey;

(2105) a predetermined motion made in an arbitrarily designated region,e.g., tapping, long pressing, drawing a predetermined pattern, slidingalong a predetermined direction, etc., wherein the designated region mayinclude a region of a displayed word or a region spaced apart from theword by a designated distance and may assume any designated shape, e.g.,round, square, rectangular, oval, etc.;

(2106) a predetermined action taken on the electronic device, e.g.,shaking the electronic device; and

(2107) a sliding command input through other means, e.g., voice inputmeans or optical, infrared or pressure sensing input means.

In addition, activating the consecutive slide input mode may furthercomprise performing a multimedia action to prompt the user to perform asubsequent operation, including an operation for triggering theconsecutive slide input mode. For example the message “Slide here forselection” or “Slide to this point to start the consecutive slide inputmode” may be displayed over the space key, or in the candidate-wordarea, or in another designated area to prompt the user to do what isbeing requested to perform the subsequent action. Additionally, anothermultimedia action may also be performed to notify the user that theconsecutive slide input mode has been triggered. The multimedia actionsmay include one or more of:

(2111) generating a predefined sound or vibration;

(2112) highlighted display of possible next words;

(2113) zoomed displayed of possible next words;

(2114) display of possible next words in a different color; and

(2115) display of indication information in a predetermined area of thekeyboard, for example, over the space key or in the candidate-word area.The indication information may be implemented as text information,numeric information, image information, or any combination them.

After the consecutive slide input mode has been activated, step S3 isperformed to input a corresponding word according to the user's slidingtrajectory, followed by updating of the keyboard layout.

In one specific embodiment, inputting a corresponding word according tothe user's sliding trajectory may include: detecting and recording theuser's sliding trajectory on the touch screen, determining whether thereis a corresponding word meeting a system-predefined word selectioncriterion, and inputting the word meeting the system-predefined wordselection criterion to a text area.

The word selection criterion may include one or more of:

(310) a trajectory entering a system-predefined effective regionassociated with a displayed word and/or word combination;

(311) a sliding trajectory over a word and/or word combination; and

(312) simultaneous multiple touch points.

In one specific embodiment, the effective region associated with thedisplayed word and/or word combination may include, but not limited to,a region where the word and/or word combination is displayed, or aregion spaced apart from the word and/or word combination by a distancenot exceeding a system-predefined distance threshold. In this case, uponthe system having detecting the entry of the trajectory in the effectiveregion, the corresponding word and/or word combination is determined asmeeting the word selection criterion.

In one specific embodiment, item (311) may include: a sliding trajectorycrossing the word and/or word combination from one side to another side.The two sides may be the same side or different sides.

Compared to the conventional input methods in which candidate words arearranged one by one and selected by taps, in the embodiments of thepresent invention, predicted words are displayed in the key area of thekeyboard and thus allows selection by manipulating two-dimensionalregions rather than the taps on one-dimensional points. This lowers theuser′ operating error rate and hence results in an improvement in boththe text input accuracy and efficiency.

In another specific embodiment, item (311) may further include:selection of a related word of the word and/or word combination by asliding trajectory. Specifically, this may include:

(3111) making a sliding trajectory from a region of the word/wordcombination to a predetermined region;

(3112) displaying related words, which may be words having syntactic orsemantic relevance to the word/word combination, in vicinity of thepredetermined region; and

(3113) selecting a corresponding one of the related words, based on aspecific operation of the user, and replacing the word/word combinationwith the selected one of the related words.

As an example, upon the user have made a sliding trajectory from a wordand/or word combination to the space key region, related words of theword and/or word combination may be displayed around the space key,which may be words and/or word combinations syntactically orsemantically related to the concerned word and/or word combination, suchas, for example, its forms in different tenses, voices and/or parts ofspeech, singular or plural form, possessive form, synonyms and/orantonyms. After that, the user may continue the gesture to the right orleft without the finger being lifted toward a desired one of thedisplayed words. Upon reaching the desired word, the user may select itby a predetermined operation, for example, maintaining the finger overthe word for a predetermined time, making another gesture, or pressinganother auxiliary key. Afterward, when the user further extends thesliding trajectory toward another word, the aforesaid word/wordcombination will be replaced by the selected related word. Additionally,the related words may also be displayed in the candidate-word area oranother designated area. Further, when it has been determined based onthe context or other factors that it is more reasonable to input arelated word but not the aforesaid word/word combination, an event maybe generated around the word/word combination, for example, display ofan indication symbol, or highlighted or zoomed display, or display inanother color, so as to provide an indication about this.

In one specific embodiment, item (312) may include: simultaneouspressing of the space key and a key over which the word/word combinationis displayed.

Inputting the word meeting the system-predefined word selectioncriterion to the text area may be implemented as directly inputting theselected word around the location of a cursor in the text area, or asinputting the selected word in the user-defined input area, or asinputting the selected word in the user-defined input area andconcurrently providing an indication around the cursor location in thetext area. The user-defined input area may be a candidate-word area oranother designated area, for example, an area located around the cursorlocation in the text area. In one specific embodiment, text that hasbeen input in the user-defined input area may be transferred into thetext area at the time when it is detected that the consecutive slideinput mode has been exited or upon reception of a command for makingthis occur from the user.

In the consecutive slide input mode, with the user continuing thesliding trajectory, corresponding words may be successively selected andthe displayed context in the key area of the keyboard may also beupdated accordingly. In one specific embodiment, the updating of thekeyboard layout may include: predicting a next possible word to be inputbased both on a context and on a current touch point of the user; anddisplaying at least one word of the results of the prediction in the keyarea of the keyboard.

Specifically, in the consecutive slide input mode, since all touchpoints are located within the key area, at various positions, though, itis required to take into account the user's current touch point duringthe process of displaying the at least one word of the results of theprediction in the key area of the keyboard, such that in the event of achange occurring in the current touch point, the display region of theat least one word will be recalculated and rearranged to still allow theuser to select a subsequent word, i.e., performing consecutive textinput. In addition, as there may have been some words displayed in thekey area, additional considerations are needed to prevent a word to besubsequently displayed from conflicting with one or more of the oneshaving been displayed.

Referring to FIG. 11, in one embodiment, target display regions in thekey area, of words and/or word combinations may be first acquired, forexample, by arranging them according to their letter correspondence andthen recording their coordinate positions. The words and/or wordcombinations may then be sorted according to their priority levels whichmay be obtained from the context and other factors. Next, for each ofthe words and/or word combinations, based on the position of a touchpoint, an analysis may be conducted to determine whether it will belocated on a possible subsequent extension of the user's slidingtrajectory. If there are at least two words and/or word combinations aredetermined to be overlapped or blocked thereby, only a word and/or wordcombination with a highest priority level may be displayed. In thisprocess, the sorting and acquiring steps may also be implemented in areverse order, or if a computing capacity allows, at the same time.

In a further embodiment, in the event of a temporarily stationary touchpoint, as shown in FIG. 12, step S3201 may be first performed todetermine whether the number of words and/or word combinations whosetarget display regions have been acquired exceeds a maximum displayableword number. If true, the number of the words and/or word combinationsmay be adjusted. Otherwise, a subsequent step is performed. The maximumdisplayable word number may be configured, for example, according to ascreen size, resolution, or practical needs. For example, when themaximum displayable word number is 10, only the first ten of the wordsand/or word combinations are displayed, while the remainder is not.

Additionally, step S3201 may also include acquiring initial targetdisplay regions of the words and/or word combinations, for example,based on the above-described letter correspondence rule. As shown inFIG. 13, a default initial target display region of the word “how” maybe located above its corresponding key “H”.

Step S3201 may further include calculating effective regions associatedwith the respective words and/or word combinations. Referring to FIG.13, each of the words or word combinations may be provided with anaccurate-touch area D1 and a wrong-touch area D2. When a touch point islocated within accurate-touch area D1, it may directly trigger theselection of a corresponding word displayed in this area. Wrong-toucharea D2 is provided to prevent the user's wrong selection of undesiredwords possibly displayed in the area due to keyboard layout updatingcaused by the user who is making a sliding trajectory. Wrong-touch areaD2 may be overlapped in part or in whole by accurate-touch area D1, orencompass accurate-touch area D1, or be adjustable according to itsrelative position to the keyboard. For example, when the wrong-toucharea D2 is located around an edge of the keyboard, it may be partiallyoverlapped by accurate-touch area D1 at a portion nearer to the keyboardedge while extending beyond accurate-touch area D1 at the otherportions.

In step S3202, whether there is a conflict between a current word and/orword combination to be displayed and words and/or word combinations thathave been displayed in the key area may be determined. If true, theprocess loops to step S3210 and, otherwise, to the next step.

In step S3203, whether the current touch point is situated within theeffective region associated with the word and/or word combination to bedisplayed may be determined. For example, if the touch point is locatedapart from wrong-touch area D2 of the word and/or word combination, itis known that the display of the word and/or word combination will notbe blocked by the touch point, and the word and/or word combination isaccordingly displayed. The process then returns to the beginning of thestep. Otherwise, if the touch point is within the wrong-touch area ofthe word and/or word combination, as it is thereby known that thedisplay of the word and/or word combination will be blocked by the touchpoint or a wrong selection will occur which can confuse the user, theprocess loops to step S3210.

Step S3210 is performed to handle a word and/or word combinationimproper to be displayed immediately. In this step, for example, thedisplay of the word and/or word combination may be cancelled, oralternatively, the word and/or word combination may be rearranged. Therearrangement may include, for example, incrementally moving the initialtarget display region of the word and/or word combination to otherregions of the associated key thereof, and repeatedly performing theabove-described corresponding determining step. If it becomes suitableto be displayed in the key area within a predetermined number ofincrements, it will be displayed. Otherwise, its display is cancelled.

In other embodiments, step S3 may further include: input wordcancellation when a predetermined action is taken.

The predetermined action may include one or more of: (a) making asliding trajectory from an area of the keyboard to the space key; (b)making a sliding trajectory from an area of the keyboard to auser-defined area; (c) and making a sliding trajectory beyond thekeyboard.

The cancellation may be any of: (i) cancellation of only an immediatelypreviously input word; (ii) cancellation of a user-defined number ofpreviously input words; and (iii) cancellation of all previously inputword.

In other embodiments, detecting and recording the user's slidingtrajectory on the touch screen in step S3 may further include slidingtrajectory display in at least one of the following manners: displayingthe whole sliding trajectory; or displaying only a portion of thesliding trajectory produced in an immediately previous user-defined timeframe and causing it to gradually disappear from the screen when itsdisplay time has exceeded a user-defined threshold.

In other embodiments, inputting the corresponding word meeting the wordselection criterion in step 3 in the text area may further includeindicating the input of the word by at least one of: an animation event,for example, the word and/or word combination floating upward and thengradually vanishing; a vibration; and a sound.

Step S3 may be repeated until the satisfaction of a system-predefinedcriterion for triggering the exit of the consecutive slide input modehas been detected. The criterion may be, for example, the userterminating the touch, a sliding trajectory to a predetermined area,absence of a possible next word, or the user selecting a predeterminedword.

As can be seen from the above description, according to the embodimentsof the present invention, after the system has completed the input of aword in the text area, it is still available for detecting the user'scontinuation of the sliding trajectory, predicting possible next wordsand displaying them in the key area of the keyboard. As such, the usercan successively input multiple words or even a whole sentence withoutthe need to terminate the gesture. The present invention features theadvantage of allowing input of multiple words or a whole sentence ineach operation, over the conventional word-by-word input approaches.

Upon a failure in activating the consecutive slide input mode, step S4is performed to display and input word information according to thesystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules. In one specificembodiment, displaying and inputting word information according to thesystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules may includearranging only words and/or word combinations obtained from a dictionarydatabase in the key area of the keyboard according to thesystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules. Reference may bemade to the above description for specific implementations of thedisplay of the words and/or word combinations in the key area of thekeyboard.

In other embodiments, the method of the present invention may furtherinclude the steps of: during the user's continuous sliding trajectorybased input, performing an anti-blockage treatment on word informationdisplayed on the keyboard area. The treatment may include one or moreof:

(610) referring to FIG. 14, keyboard duplication, specificallyincluding: in the event of the finger sliding over a word in the keyarea of the keyboard and then staying thereon without being lifted for aduration exceeding a system-predefined time limit, displaying a reducedduplicate of the key area in vicinity thereof and providing theduplicate with an indicator that indicates the position of a currenttouch point of the finger;

(620) referring to FIG. 15, word relocation, specifically including: inthe event of the finger sliding over a word in the key area and thenstaying thereon without being lifted for a duration exceeding asystem-predefined time limit, updating the candidate-word area in thekeyboard area such that all words in the key area are displayed in thecandidate-word area, wherein the words are displayed in the updatedcandidate-word area along a certain direction with their verticalpositions therein respectively corresponding to their original verticalpositions in the key area, and wherein the selected word is notdisplayed in the candidate-word area; and

(630) word rearrangement, specifically including: in the event of thefinger sliding over a word in the key area and then staying thereonwithout being lifted for a duration exceeding a system-predefined timelimit, in the course of words in the key area being updated, if adefault target display region of a word is spaced from the touch pointof the finger by a distance that is less than a system-predefineddistance threshold, the word is displayed and arranged in a regionlocated in vicinity of the touch point of the finger, specifically,above, left to or right thereto, and spaced therefrom by a distancegreater than the system-predefined distance.

It shall be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the method ofthe present invention is not limited to any specific language. Forexample, the embodiments of the present invention may be applied tolanguages, including, but not limited to, one or more of: Chinese,English, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese,Russian, Belgian, Dutch, Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek, Indonesian, Malay,Filipino, Albanian, Basque, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian,Czech, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Galician, Hebrew, Hungarian,Icelandic, Lithuanian, Kazakh, Khmer, Laotian, Latvian, Macedonian,Malagasy, Maori, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian,Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Uighur, Ukrainian andVietnamese.

The present invention also provides a system for continuous slidingtrajectory based text input. The system may be implemented either as aphysical apparatus or as a functional module based on a softwareprogram. Referring to FIG. 16, in one specific embodiment, the systemcomprises: a dictionary database 810, adapted to store word information;user interaction module 820, adapted to process interactions with theuser and record and transmit information input in the keyboard area toan analysis and processing module 830; analysis and processing module830, adapted to receive the information and an event from the userinteraction module, sort and process the information and event, interactwith dictionary database 810 to obtain therefrom a list of words and/orword combinations according to certain selection rules, and pass theobtained list on to a display module 840; and display module 840,adapted to display and arrange the words and/or word combinationsobtained from analysis and processing module 830 according to thesystem-defined word display and arrangement rules in the key area of thekeyboard and feed information about the results of the display,including information about word number, positions and coordinates, backto the analysis and processing module.

Specifically, the information recorded by user interaction module 820may include at least one of: (8201) a tapping, lifting or moving eventoccurring at a single touch point; (8202) a tapping, lifting or movingevent occurring at multiple touch points; (8203) coordinate information;and (8204) a sliding trajectory.

The selection rules on which the analysis and processing module is basedto obtain the list of words may include one or more of: word usefrequency, context, the user's previous inputs, linguistic models,syntax rules and other relevant statistical information.

In one specific embodiment, analysis and processing module 830 isconfigured to perform the steps of:

(8301) receiving the information and event from user interaction module820 and performing an analysis to ascertain whether the action or eventmeets a system-predefined criterion for triggering a consecutive slideinput mode;

(8302) if true, performing the steps of:

-   -   (i) transmitting information of a current touch point or        trajectory to display module 840; and    -   (ii) sending the words and/or word combinations obtained from        dictionary database 810 to display module 840 which responsively        updates words displayed on the keyboard layout;

(8303) otherwise, transmitting only the words obtained from dictionarydatabase 810 to the display module 840 which responsively displays thewords in the key area of the keyboard according to system-predefinedword display and arrangement rules;

(8304) determining whether a word or word combination meets asystem-predefined word selection criterion based on the information fedback from display module 840 in combination with a trajectory of acurrent moving or sliding trajectory of the user;

(8305) if true, detecting a sliding trajectory of the user, andtransmitting a word confirmed by the user to an input area or directlycausing it to be displayed around a cursor;

(8306) otherwise, producing no output;

(8307) repeating steps 8301 to 8306 until receiving a gesturetermination event from user interaction module 820.

In one specific embodiment, display module 840 displays and arranges thewords received from analysis and processing module 830 in the key areaof the keyboard according to the system-predefined word display andarrangement rules, and feeds information about the results of thedisplay, including information about word number, positions andcoordinates, back to analysis and processing module 840. Morespecifically, to this end, display module 840 may perform the followingsteps:

(8401) receiving a list of words or word combinations transmitted fromanalysis and processing module 830;

(8402) for each of the words or word combinations, parsing its targetdisplay region according to its coordinate;

(8403) if a current word or word combination satisfies thesystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules, displaying it in apredetermined region of a key in the key area associated therewith;

(8404) otherwise, activating a rearrangement mode to screen the wordsthat have not been displayed and thereby recreate a list of displayablewords; and

(8405) transmitting information about the number of words andcoordinates of the positions of the words back to analysis andprocessing module 830 after each rearrangement.

The predetermined region may be located above, at the top left of, atthe top right of, under, at the bottom left of, or at the bottom rightof the associated key, or at any position that is spaced apart from theassociated key by a distance not exceeding a system-predefined distancethreshold.

The word display and arrangement rules may include one or a combinationof: (i) letter correspondence-based display of a word in a correspondingregion in the key area; (ii) inter-word distance and word length-baseddisplay; (iii) touch point position and trajectory-based display; and(iv) word use frequency, user input preference, linguistic models,syntax rules, context and other relevant statistical information-baseddisplay.

The principles of the present invention will be readily apparent upon areading of the following description of several examples.

Example 1

Referring to FIGS. 17A to 17D, a complete process of continuous wordinput initiated with a sliding trajectory starting from a space keyincludes the steps of:

(1) inputting the word “Good” by a tapping or sliding motion, therebycausing the display of related words of “Good”, i.e., “morning”, “day”,“boy” and “afternoon”, as shown in FIG. 17A, in the keyboard areaaccording to the inventive rules;

(2) the finger sliding from the space key to an identification region ofthe word “morning”, i.e., touching the space key and then moving to thelocation marked by the dashed-line circle in FIG. 17B, such that theword “morning” is selected and displayed in a candidate-word box, anarea in which a word is temporarily held in a “standby” state before itis finally input in the text area;

(3) the word combination “Good morning” serving as the basis forpredicting and electing several possible next words, shown as“everyone”, “kiss” and “to” in FIG. 17B, the inventive rules-baseddisplay of which updates the displayed content on the keyboard;

(4) the finger continuing sliding forwardly to an identification regionof the word “everyone”, i.e., continuing moving to the location markedby the dashed-line circle in FIG. 17C with being lifted, such that theword “everyone” is selected and displayed in the candidate-word box;

(5) the word combination “Good morning everyone” again serving as thebasis for the prediction and election of new possible next words, shownas “who”, “has” and “is” in FIG. 17C, followed by another updating ofthe displayed content;

(6) the finger still being allowed to slide to other desired words toselect them, i.e., repeating steps (2) to (5);

(7) the finger being lifted, i.e., the touch being terminated, whichstops the input and thereby causes the transfer of the words in thecandidate-word box to the text area, as shown in FIG. 17D.

Example 2

FIGS. 18A to 18B show a process for triggering the consecutive slideinput mode by tapping a word displayed above a letter key and draggingit into a region of the space key. The process involves the followingsteps.

(1) At first, as shown in FIG. 18A, the consecutive slide input mode istriggered by tapping the screen within the identification region of theword “morning”, i.e., the location marked by the dashed-line circle inthe figure, and dragging the word to the region of the space key. Thisalso causes the selection of the word “morning”, which is then displayedin the candidate-word box.

(2) The word combination “Good morning” in the candidate-word box servesas the basis for predicting and selecting several possible next words,shown as “everyone”, “kiss” and “to” in FIG. 18B, and the displayedcontent on the key-board is accordingly updated to these word.

(3) If the user's sliding trajectory is not terminated and is furtherextended to the identification region of the word “everyone”, i.e., thelocation marked by the dashed-line circle in FIG. 18B, the word“everyone” will be selected and displayed in the candidate-word box.Before the gesture is terminated, further desired words can be input byrepeating steps (2) to (3).

(4) Otherwise, if the touch is terminated after step (2), in order tofurther input the word “everyone”, it is required to perform again step(1) to tap the word “everyone” and drag it into the region of the spacekey.

Example 3

The consecutive slide input mode is triggered by one of several actionstaken around a word displayed above a letter key, including:

(1) drawing a circle or any other predetermined pattern, for example, atriangle, cross or tick, which will cause the selection of the words, aswell as its display in the candidate-word box, and after which, the wordis transferred to the text area if the touch is terminated, or anotherword in the updated content is subsequently selected if the gesture iscontinued to its identification region;

(2) upward or downward sliding, or sliding to left or right, which willcause the selection of the words, as well as its display in thecandidate-word box, and after which, the word is transferred to the textarea if the touch is terminated, or another word in the updated contentis subsequently selected if the gesture is continued to itsidentification region;

(3) a forth-and-back sliding motion, for example, a left-right-leftmotion or such a motion made along any direction, which passes throughthe region where the word is displayed twice; and

(4) a user-defined motion, e.g., a certain gesture.

Example 4

Referring to FIG. 19, the consecutive slide input mode is triggered by asliding trajectory starting from a user-defined sensitive point 1901 inthe keyboard to a word displayed around a letter key.

Example 5

With the space key or another user-defined key being touch, a worddisplayed around a letter key is input to the text area by simplytapping it. Successive input of other words is possible by repeatingthis operation, as shown in FIG. 20.

Example 6

Referring to FIGS. 21A to 21D, in response to at least one letterarbitrarily input by the user, prediction of possible next words and/orword combinations is performed by the system and the key area of thekeyboard is updated in a real-time fashion with the predicted words.

(1) Upon the user having input “wh”, words associated with these inputletter, such as “who”, “what”, “where” and “which”, as shown in FIG.21A, are displayed in the key area according to the inventive rules.

(2) The word “what” is selected, and the consecutive slide input mode isconcurrently triggered, when the finger makes a sliding trajectory fromthe space key and upward into the identification region of “what”, asshown in FIG. 21B. More specifically, the finger taps the space key andthen slides to the location marked by the dashed-line circle, therebycausing the selection of the “what” and its display in thecandidate-word box. At the same time, the consecutive slide input modeis triggered, allowing input of subsequent words by continuouslyextending the sliding trajectory with the finger being lifted off thescreen.

(3) Associated words of the “what” in the candidate-word box, shown inas “can”, “is” and “do” in FIG. 21C, are then predicted based thereonand displayed according to the inventive rules to replace the wordcurrently being presented in the key area.

(4) With the sliding trajectory proceeding without being lifted into theidentification region of the word “can”, i.e., the location marked bythe dashed-line circle in FIG. 21D, “can” is also selected and displayedin the candidate-word box.

(5) Based on the word combination “what can” in the candidate-word box,the prediction of possible next words, i.e., “I”, “he” and “you” shownin FIG. 21E, is conducted and the predicted words update the displayedcontent in the key area.

(6) The finger is still allowed to slide to other desired words toselect them, i.e., repeating steps (2) to (5).

(7) After the finger is lifted, i.e., the touch being terminated, theinput is stopped and the words in the candidate-word box are transferredto the text area, as shown in FIG. 21F.

Example 7

Referring to FIGS. 22A to 22B, in the context of the Chinese language,the system predicts possible next Chinese characters or words based onan input of letter(s) by the user and updates the key area of thekeyboard with the results of the prediction in a real-time fashion.

(1) Based on “tian” input by the user, characters or words resultingfrom a prediction, e.g., “

”, “

”, “

” and “

”, as shown in FIG. 22A are displayed according to the inventive rulesin the candidate-word box. At the same time, words associated with thedefault result “

” are displayed around letter keys that correspond to the first phoneticalphabets of the respective subsequent characters of the words. As aresult, for example, “

” is displayed around the letter key “Q”, “

” around “J”, “

” around “L”, and “

” around “X”. In addition, as “tian” can also be construed as the pinyinof the Chinese word “

”, this word is also displayed around the corresponding letter key “T”.

(2) Assuming that the word “

” is desired by the user, a circle can be drawn around the word totrigger the consecutive slide input mode and simultaneously, as shown inFIG. 22B, and cause “

” to be selected and displayed in the candidate-word box.

(3) Based on the word “

” displayed in the candidate-word box, possible next characters orwords, e.g., “

”, “

”, “

” and “

” as shown in FIG. 22C, are predicted and displayed to update thecontent in the key area. During this process, although “

” is also a result of the prediction, as the current touch point of theuser is located over the letter key “Q”, trajectories of extension ofthe user's sliding trajectory to “

”, “

” and “

” may be overlapped or blocked by the trajectory of extension to “

”, and also since it has a priority level that is lower than those of “

”, “

” and “

”, “

” is not displayed.

(4) With the gesture proceeding, for example, into the identificationregion of “

”, i.e., the location marked by the dashed line in FIG. 22D, without thefinger being lifted off the screen, “

” is selected and further displayed in the candidate-word box.

(5) The phrase “

” in the candidate-word box can serves as the basis for predicting andelecting possible next characters or words, e.g., “

”, “

”, “

” and “

”, followed by updating the content displayed in the key area accordingto the inventive rules.

(6) The finger is still allowed to slide to other desired words toselect them, i.e., repeating steps (3) to (5).

(7) Upon the finger being lifted, i.e., the touch being terminated, theinput operation is ceased and the phrase in the candidate-word box aretransferred to the text area, as shown in FIG. 22F.

These examples are provided merely for the purpose of facilitating theunderstanding of the subject matter of the present invention and shallin no way be construed as limiting the scope of thereof. As a matter ofcourse, all substantive equivalents of the embodiments disclosed above,as well as all other easily imaginable embodiments also fall within thescope of the subject matter of the present invention. Wherein theembodiments disclosed above also include all those implicitly disclosedthereby.

As described above, the methods, system and device according to thepresent invention can predict a series of candidate words or wordcombinations based on the context and the user's input preference andarrange them around corresponding keys of the keyboard according topredefined display rules. In addition, the user is allowed to make asliding trajectory, i.e., a single operation, consecutively over thedesired ones of the words or combinations displayed in the keyboard toinput multiple words, which can form a complete sentence or even a blockof text. Moreover, the arrangement of the words or combinations isflexibly adaptive to various keyboard layouts, for example, aQWERTY-based or other full-alphabet layout, a half-QWERTY layout, analphanumeric keypad layout, and even a layout defined by the user. Allof these achieve an effective increase in input efficiency and entail“smart” word prediction and arrangement.

Further, according to the present invention, words and/or wordcombinations obtained from the dictionary database are processedaccording to the system-predefined word display and arrangement rules,thereby enabling the positioning of predicted next words possibly to beinput by the user around corresponding keys in the keyboard. This allowsthe user to perform rapid selection of candidate words and continuoustext input in a convenient and smooth way without the need to switchoperations between the keys and candidate-word area. Therefore, inaddition to a great improvement in the input efficiency, the user canfurther have more comfortable inputting experience.

While the invention has been described herein with reference to specificembodiments thereof, it is apparent that many changes and variations canbe made without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.Therefore, the description and drawings are, accordingly, to be regardedas illustrative rather than restrictive.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for inputting text by consecutiveslide, comprising: predicting one or more first possible words to beinput based on a context and an input of the user and updating contentdisplayed in a keyboard layout to display the one or more predictedfirst possible words in a key area of the keyboard layout; in responseto detecting that a consecutive slide input mode is triggered, detectingand recording a sliding gesture applied by the user to a touch-screen;while the sliding gesture is applied by the user, selecting, based onthe sliding gesture, one of the displayed one or more first possiblewords and inputting the selected first possible word to a text area;while the sliding gesture is applied by the user and in response toselecting and inputting the selected first possible word to the textarea, predicting one or more next possible words based on the firstpossible word that has been selected and input to the text area; whilethe sliding gesture is applied by the user, updating the contentdisplayed in the keyboard layout to display the one or more predictednext possible words in the key area of the keyboard layout, the one ormore predicted next possible words being arranged according to one ormore word display and arrangement rules; and while the sliding gestureis applied by the user, selecting, based on the sliding gesture, one ofthe displayed one or more next possible words and inputting the selectednext possible word to the text area.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinpredicting one or more first possible words to be input comprises one ora combination of the following: predicting a first possible word whenpart, but not all, of its letters have been input; predicting a relatedword; and correcting a current input of the user and predicting a firstpossible word based on the results of the correction.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said one or more word display and arrangement rulescomprises: first letter correspondence-based display; a next letter or anext phonetic alphabet to the current input correspondence-baseddisplay; inter-word distance and word length-based display; touch pointposition and sliding gesture trajectory-based display; and word usefrequency, user input preference, language models, syntax rules, contextand other relevant statistical information-based display.
 4. The methodof claim 3, wherein the inter-word distance and word length-baseddisplay comprises one or more of the following: determining whethertarget display regions of at least two words are excessively close toeach other and, if true, only displaying one of the at least two wordswith a highest priority level or adjusting the target display region ofeach other one of the at least two words with a lower priority level;and determining whether a length of a word affects another word to bedisplayed at an adjacent target display region and, if true, onlydisplaying one of the two words with a high priority level or adjustingthe target display region of the other of the two words with a lowpriority level.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the touch pointposition and sliding gesture trajectory-based display comprises one ormore of the following: determining whether a target display region of aword is to be blocked by a current touch point and, if true, notdisplaying the word or adjusting its target display region; anddetermining whether target display regions of at least two words are tobe overlapped or blocked by a trajectory of a current touch point and,if true, for each of the at least two words, further determining,according to their priority levels, whether to display it or adjust itstarget display region, such that it will not be overlapped or blocked bya possible subsequent extension of the trajectory.
 6. The method ofclaim 3, further comprising: prioritizing multiple ones of the worddisplay and arrangement rules.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein saidupdating the content displayed in a keyboard layout to display the oneor more predicted first possible words further comprises obtaining adisplaying position using one or more of the following means: displayingat least one of the predicted first possible words above, or at the topleft of, at the top right of, under, at the bottom left of, or at thebottom right of an associated key, or a predetermined region of anassociated key that is spaced apart from the associated key by adistance not exceeding a system-predefined distance threshold;displaying at least one of the predicted first possible words in thekeyboard layout as well as in a candidate-word area; and displaying atleast one of the predicted first possible words in the key area of thekeyboard layout according to a current touch point of the user.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein displaying the one or more predicted firstpossible words in the key area of the keyboard layout further comprises:updating displayed content in the key area of the keyboard layout in areal-time manner according to an input of the user.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein in the event that no first possible words to be inputare predicted based on the context and the input of the user, anindication is given in the form of one or a combination of a visualindication, an auditory indication and a vibration.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein selecting, based on the sliding gesture, one of thedisplayed one or more first possible words comprises: determiningwhether the sliding gesture meets one or more of the followingsystem-predefined word selection criterion; determining whether a touchpoint is located in a system-predefined, associated effective region ofa first possible word, and when the touch point is located in saideffective region, selecting the first possible word; determining whetherthere is a predetermined sliding gesture, and selecting a correspondingfirst possible word or a related word of the corresponding firstpossible word by the sliding gesture; and determining whether there aresimultaneous multiple touch points and selecting a corresponding firstpossible word if yes.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprisingperforming one or more of the following: calculating associatedeffective regions of the one or more predicted first possible words anddetermining whether a current touch point is located within an effectiveregion of a predicted first possible word; in the event of a changeoccurring in a current touch point, recalculating and rearranging targetdisplay regions of the one or more predicted first possible words;determining whether the number of predicted first possible words to bedisplayed exceeds a maximum displayable word number, or determiningwhether one or more of the predicted first possible words are located ona trajectory of the sliding gesture of the user, or determining whethera predicted first possible word to be displayed conflicts with wordsthat have been displayed, and displaying the predicted first possiblewords according to the determination result; and cancelling the displayof or rearranging a predicted first possible word word unsuitable to beimmediately displayed.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein theconsecutive slide input mode is triggered by one or more of: a slidinggesture starting from the space key; a sliding gesture starting from anarbitrarily designated key; a sliding gesture starting from a sensitivepoint located away from the key area; a user-defined motion made arounda displayed word; a predetermined motion made in an arbitrarilydesignated region; a predetermined action taken on a correspondingelectronic device; and a sliding command.
 13. The method of claim 1,further comprising displaying a sliding gesture trajectory of thesliding gesture by: displaying the whole sliding gesture trajectory; ordisplaying only a portion of the sliding gesture trajectory produced inan immediately previous user-defined time frame and causing it togradually disappear from the screen when its display time has exceeded auser-defined threshold.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein theconsecutive slide input mode exits when the occurrence of asystem-predefined exit triggering event is detected.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising performing one or more of the followinganti-blockage treatments on word information displayed in the keyboardarea while the sliding gesture is applied by the user: keyboardduplication, word relocation and word rearrangement.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: detecting whether the consecutive slideinput mode is triggered in response to another input of the user.
 17. Asystem for inputting text by consecutive slide, comprising at least: adictionary database adapted to store word information; a processor; anda memory for storing instructions executable by the processor, whereinthe processor in communication with the dictionary database isconfigured to: process an interaction with a user, record informationinput by the user in an area of a keyboard and transmit the information;receive the information and an event, sort and process the informationand the event, obtain a list of one or more predicted first possiblewords from the dictionary database based on selection rules and inaccordance with the information, and pass the obtained list; provide theuser with displayed content, display and arrange at least one of the oneor more predicted first possible words according to system-defined worddisplay and arrangement rules in a key area of the keyboard; in responseto detecting that a consecutive slide input mode is triggered, detectand record a sliding gesture applied by the user to a touch-screen;while the sliding gesture is applied by the user, select, based on thesliding gesture, one of the displayed one or more predicted firstpossible words and input the selected first possible word to a textarea; while the sliding gesture is applied by the user and in responseto selecting and inputting the selected first possible word to the textarea, obtain a list of one or more predicted next possible words fromthe dictionary database based on selection rules and based on the firstpossible word that has been selected and input to the text area; whilethe sliding gesture is applied by the user, update the content displayedin the keyboard layout to display the one or more predicted nextpossible words in the key area of the keyboard layout, the one or morepredicted next possible words being arranged according to one or moreword display and arrangement rules; and while the sliding gesture isapplied by the user, select, based on the sliding gesture, one of thedisplayed one or more next possible words and input the selected nextpossible word to the text area.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: in response to detecting that theconsecutive slide input mode is triggered, transmit information about acurrent touch point or trajectory, as well as the one or more predictedfirst possible words obtained from the dictionary database, according tosystem-predefined word display and arrangement rules; when theconsecutive slide input mode is not triggered, transmit only the one ormore predicted first possible words obtained from the dictionarydatabase according to system-predefined word display and arrangementrules; determine whether one of the one or more predicted first possiblewords meets a system-predefined word selection criterion based oninformation about the displayed at least one of the one or morepredicted first possible words in combination with a trajectory of acurrent moving or slide gesture of the user; if the system-predefinedword selection criterion is met, transmit the word meeting the wordselection criterion the text area; otherwise, produce no output.
 19. Thesystem of claim 18, wherein the information about the displayed at leastone of the one or more predicted first possible words comprises one ormore of: the number, display positions and coordinates of the displaypositions, of the displayed at least one of the one or more predictedfirst possible words.
 20. The system of claim 17, wherein the worddisplay and arrangement rules comprises one or a combination of: lettercorrespondence-based display of a word in a corresponding region in thekey area; inter-word distance and word length-based display; touch pointposition and sliding gesture trajectory-based display; and word usefrequency, user input preference, language models, syntax rules, contextand other relevant statistical information-based display.
 21. The systemof claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to: detectingwhether the consecutive slide input mode is triggered in response toanother input of the user.